Maurice Gee

{{Infobox writer

| name = Maurice Gee

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Maurice Gee.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Gee in 2018

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Maurice Gough Gee

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|08|22|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Whakatāne, New Zealand

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|06|12|1931|08|22|df=yes}}

| death_place = Nelson, New Zealand

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| occupation = Writer

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| alma_mater = University of Auckland

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| notableworks = {{plainlist}}

In My Father's Den (1972)
Plumb (1978)
Under the Mountain (1979)

| spouse = {{Marriage|Margareta Gee|1970}}

| partner =

| children = 3

| relatives =

| awards =

| signature =

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}}

Maurice Gough Gee (22 August 1931 – 12 June 2025) was a New Zealand novelist. He was one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and having won numerous awards both in New Zealand and overseas, including multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, the Robert Burns Fellowship and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003, he was recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists across all disciplines by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with an Icon Award.

Gee's novel Plumb (1978) was described by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature to be one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand. He was also well-known for children's and young adult fiction such as Under the Mountain (1979). He won multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and in 2002 he was presented with the prestigious Margaret Mahy Award by the Children's Literature Foundation in recognition of his contributions to children's literature.

Early life and education

Gee was born in Whakatāne, and brought up in Henderson, a suburb of Auckland, a location that frequently features in his writing.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wattie |first=Nelson |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=Gee, Maurice |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-438 |access-date=21 November 2020 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |title=Interview with Maurice Gee |url=https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/new-zealand-childrens-authors/maurice-gee/ |website=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=21 November 2020 |date=2002}}{{cite web |title=Gee, Maurice |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/gee-maurice/ |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=21 November 2020}}{{cite web |title=Maurice Gee |url=https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/maurice-gee |website=The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi |access-date=21 November 2020}} His mother, Harriet Lyndahl Gee ({{nee|Chapple}}), was a socialist and an aspiring writer who had some of her work published, including a children's picture book called Mihi and the Last of the Moas (1943),{{cite web |title=Interview with Maurice Gee |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/35861108 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=2 December 2020 |date=2008}} and his father, Leonard Gee, was a carpenter. He was the middle child of their three sons.{{cite news |last1=Matthews |first1=Philip |title=Maurice Gee on his mother's thwarted writing career, his messy adolescence and how he met the love of his life |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/107203619/maurice-gee-on-his-mothers-thwarted-writing-career-his-messy-adolescence-and-how-he-met-the-love-of-his-life |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=Stuff |date=6 October 2018}} Gee was also the grandson of controversial Presbyterian-turned-Unitarian minister James Chapple, later to be the inspiration for Gee's character George Plumb in his Plumb trilogy (1978).{{cite news |title=The 50 best New Zealand books of the past 50 years: The official listicle |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/14-05-2018/the-best-50-new-zealand-books-of-the-past-50-years-the-official-listicle/ |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=The Spinoff |date=14 May 2018}}

Gee attended Henderson Primary School and Avondale College, and completed BA and MA degrees at the University of Auckland, which subsequently recognised him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998, and an honorary Doctorate of Literature in 2004.{{cite web|url=http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/for/prospective/learning/alumni/maurice_gee.cfm |title=Famous past students – Maurice Gee |publisher=University of Auckland |access-date=2009-01-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015210743/http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa//for/prospective/learning/alumni/maurice_gee.cfm |archive-date=15 October 2008 }} He also received an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University of Wellington in 1987.{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |title=Writing Wellington: Twenty Years of Victoria University Writing Fellows |date=1999 |publisher=Victoria University Press |location=Wellington, NZ |isbn=978-0-8647-3367-2 |page=57 |url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RobWrit-_N71240.html |access-date=21 November 2020 |chapter=1989 Maurice Gee}}

Literary career

=Early career: 1950 to 1977=

Gee began writing at university, and had short stories published in New Zealand journals Landfall and Mate. After finishing his MA he taught in the secondary department of Paeroa District High School for about 18 months, starting in February 1955, but resigned in July 1956 to focus on his writing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ohinemuri.org.nz/journals/63-journal-35-september-1991/1290-distinguished-ex-staff-of-paeroa-district-high-school.html|title=Distinguished Ex-Staff of Paeroa District High School – Maurice Gough GEE|language=en|access-date=2019-11-18}}{{cite web |title=Maurice Gee |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maurice-Gee |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=13 September 2021}} In January 1960 and December 1961, he was awarded literary grants by the New Zealand Literary Fund.{{cite news |title=Literary Fund Awards |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19600113.2.21 |access-date=22 September 2021 |work=The Press |date=13 January 1960 |page=4}}{{cite news |title=£500 Award to Writer |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19611221.2.176 |access-date=22 September 2021 |work=The Press |date=21 December 1961 |page=17}}

His first published novel was The Big Season (1962),{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=The Big Season |date=1962 |publisher=Hutchinson & Co |location=London}} a novel about a rugby player who becomes interested in a burglar and the burglar's girlfriend. It had themes of violence and tension, and was described by The New Zealand Herald as "not always pleasant, but certainly forceful and sincere". Gee himself was a keen rugby player and the games in the novel were inspired by his own experiences. In 1964, Gee was the sixth recipient of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago, one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary awards.{{cite news |last1=Benson |first1=Nigel |title=Burns Fellows gather at unveiling |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/burns-fellows-gather-unveiling |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=Otago Daily Times |date=11 October 2008}} During this fellowship he wrote his second novel, A Special Flower (1965).{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=A Special Flower |date=1965 |publisher=Hutchinson |location=London}} After the fellowship he trained as a librarian and in the 1960s and 1970s worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library, the Napier library and several libraries in Auckland.

His third novel, In My Father's Den, a mystery novel, was published in 1972.{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=In My Father's Den |date=1972 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-5710-9850-7}} This novel was later adapted into the critically acclaimed film of the same name by director Brad McGann in 2004. Gee followed this novel with a collection of short stories, A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1974),{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=A glorious morning, comrade : stories |date=1975 |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=Auckland |isbn=978-0-1964-7938-5}} which won the prize for fiction at the 1976 New Zealand Book Awards,{{cite web |title=Past Winners by Author: G |url=https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/past-winners-by-author?letter=G |website=New Zealand Book Awards |access-date=13 September 2021}} and a further novel Games of Choice (1976).{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=Games of choice |date=1976 |publisher=Faber & Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-1955-8024-2}}

=''Plumb'' and children's fiction: 1978 to 1991=

Gee's novel Plumb, published in 1978, is his best-known work for adults, and is considered one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand. In 2018, fifty New Zealand literary experts voted it to be the best novel of the last fifty years. Gee described it as his "grandfather novel", with the character George Plumb closely based on his mother's father James Chapple, particularly his early life and his trials for heresy and seditious utterance. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK,{{cite web |title=Fiction winners – Winners of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/events/james-tait-black/winners/fiction |website=University of Edinburgh |access-date=21 November 2020}} and the top prize for fiction at both the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards and the New Zealand Book Awards in 1979. The novel and its two sequels, Meg (1981) and Sole Survivor (1983), explore the impacts of history, politics and religion on one family from the perspectives of different members.{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Stringer |editor1-first=Jenny |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English |title=Gee, Maurice |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192122711.001.0001/acref-9780192122711-e-102 |access-date=21 November 2020 |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-2757-3}} Meg won the top prize for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards in 1982.

At this time Gee also published his first children's novel, Under the Mountain (1979), a science fiction story set in Auckland, New Zealand, about 11-year-old twins who discover aliens under volcanic Lake Pupuke. It has remained in print since it was published and is considered a New Zealand classic.{{cite web |title=Exploring Maurice Gee's fiction for young readers |url=https://www.read-nz.org/aotearoa-reads-details/exploring-maurice-gees-fiction-for-young-readers |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=21 November 2020 |date=3 October 2014}} It has been adapted into a 1981 television miniseries, a 2009 film and a stage show.{{cite news |last1=Simei-Barton |first1=Paul |title=Review: Kiwi kids sci-fi classic Under the Mountain comes alive in stage |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/review-kiwi-kids-sci-fi-classic-under-the-mountain-comes-alive-in-stage/GKCEDMDF7R2EGYOGOZOEWJYQAI/ |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=11 February 2018}} In 2004, Under the Mountain was the recipient of the Gaelyn Gordon Award, awarded annually to a "much-loved" New Zealand children's book that did not win any awards at the time of its publication.{{cite web |title=Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award |url=https://www.storylines.org.nz/Awards/Storylines+Gaelyn+Gordon+Award.html |website=Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand |access-date=21 November 2020}} It was followed by other children's books, including notably the science fiction trilogy beginning with The Halfmen of O (1982),{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=The Halfmen of O |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-1955-8081-5}} which won the AIM Children's Book Awards Book of the Year Award in 1983,{{cite web |title=AIM Book of the Year |url=https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/LiteraryPrizes/Aim/BookoftheYear/ |website=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=21 November 2020}} and Motherstone (1985), which was awarded the Esther Glen Award by LIANZA.{{cite web |title=LIANZA Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award |url=https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/esther-glen-award/ |website=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=21 November 2020}}

In order to improve his income, Gee began working in television writing, including writing for 11 episodes of soap opera Close to Home and episodes of police drama Mortimer's Patch.{{cite web |title=Maurice Gee – Writer |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/profile/maurice-gee/biography |website=NZ On Screen |access-date=21 November 2020}} Two of his children's books, The Fire-Raiser (1986) and The Champion (1989) originated as television projects. The Champion was shortlisted for the 1990 Esther Glen Award. In 1987, he was recognised by Victoria University of Wellington with the award of an honorary Doctorate of Literature, and in 1989 he held a Victoria University writing fellowship. Around this time he wrote two adult novels set in Nelson: Prowlers (1987){{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=Prowlers |date=1987 |publisher=Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-5711-4811-0}} and The Burning Boy (1990).{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=The Burning Boy |date=1990 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-5711-4442-6}} The Burning Boy was awarded the top prize for fiction at the 1991 New Zealand Book Awards.

=Later career and legacy: 1992 to 2025=

File:Maurice Gee Plaque.jpg in 2011 by the New Zealand Society of Authors in honour of Gee{{cite news |last1=O'Connell |first1=Tim |title=Final chapter complete in author's Riverside chair restoration |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/122220786/final-chapter-complete-in-authors-riverside-chair-restoration |access-date=13 September 2021 |work=Nelson Mail |date=30 July 2020}}]]

The publication of Gee's tenth novel, Going West (1992),{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=Going West |date=1992 |publisher=Viking |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-670-84997-0}} cemented his reputation as one of the best writers in New Zealand. It is the most autobiographical of Gee's fictional novels, and the fictional town of Loomis, in which the novel is set, has many similarities to Henderson, Auckland, where Gee grew up. The novel was the inspiration for the Going West Books & Writers Festival, Auckland's first literary festival, which has been held since 1996.{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.goingwestfest.co.nz/history |website=Going West Writers' Festival |access-date=21 November 2020}} It won the top prize for fiction at the 1993 Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards. In 1993, Andro Linklater, writing in British newspaper The Sunday Times, said that "Gee deserves to be regarded as one of the finest writers at work, not only in New Zealand ... but in the English speaking world".{{cite journal |last1=Sharp |first1=Iain |title=Letter from Auckland |journal=New Zealand Review of Books |date=Winter 1993 |issue=9 |url=https://nzbooks.org.nz/1993/non-fiction/letter-from-auckland-iain-sharp-2/ |access-date=21 November 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Johnston |first1=Andrew |title=Maurice Gee: Our Superb Storyteller |url=http://andrewjohnston.org/gee.htm |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=The Evening Post |date=3 July 1993}}

Gee was the 1992 recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, a literary fellowship that enables the recipient to work in Menton, France, for part of the year, where Katherine Mansfield herself lived and worked in the early 20th century. During his time in Menton, Gee wrote the novel Crime Story, which was published in 1994.{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=Crime Story |date=1994 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-1402-3942-3}} A decade later it was adapted by Larry Parr into the 2004 film Fracture. The film was praised by Christchurch newspaper The Press as "competent, confident and complex".

The Fat Man (1994){{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=The Fat Man |date=1994 |publisher=Viking |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-670-85979-5}} won the AIM Children's Book of the Year award and the Esther Glen Award.{{cite web |title=LIANZA Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award |url=https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/esther-glen-award/ |website=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=21 November 2020}} It was controversial for its content and portrayal of violence, with Gee himself describing it as a "psychological thriller for children".{{cite journal |last1=Holloway |first1=Judith |title=A fat boy, a creek and personal responsibility |journal=NZ Review of Books |date=Spring 1995 |issue=19 |url=https://nzbooks.org.nz/1995/literature/a-fat-boy-a-creek-and-personal-responsibility-judith-holloway/ |access-date=21 November 2020}} In 1998, he published Live Bodies, a novel for adults that was awarded both the top prize for fiction and the Deutz Medal at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards that year. Other notable works in the late 1990s included the children's books Orchard Street (1998) and Hostel Girl (1999). His contributions to New Zealand children's literature were recognised by the Children's Literature Foundation in 2002 which presented him with the prestigious Margaret Mahy Award.{{cite web |url=http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/LiteraryPrizes/ChildrensLiteratureFoundationNZ/MargaretMahy/ |title=Margaret Mahy Medal Award |year=2012 |publisher=Christchurch City Libraries |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |access-date=25 July 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.storylines.org.nz/Awards/Margaret+Mahy+Award.html |title=Margaret Mahy Award |year=2012 |work=Storylines.org.nz |publisher=Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand |location=Auckland, New Zealand |access-date=25 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706024842/http://www.storylines.org.nz/Awards/Margaret%2BMahy%2BAward.html |archive-date=6 July 2012 }}

In the early 2000s, Gee's novels included Ellie and the Shadow Man (2001), which was short-listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2002, and The Scornful Moon (2003), which was short-listed for Best Book in the South Pacific & South East Asian Region of the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize and a runner-up in the fiction category at the 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Gee also received two prestigious awards: in 2003 he was named as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand through the presentation of an Icon Award (recipients being limited to a living circle of 20), and in 2004 he received a {{NZ$}}60,000 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for fiction.{{cite web |url=http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/en/results-of-our-work/award-winners/prime-minister-s-awards-for-literary-achievement |title=Previous winners |publisher=Creative New Zealand |access-date=24 October 2013}} His 2005 novel Blindsight won the Deutz Medal, the top prize for fiction and (jointly) the Readers' Choice Award at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. His 2007 novel Salt won the award for young adult fiction at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Salt and its sequel, Gool, were both listed as Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction Books. The third novel in the trilogy, The Limping Man (2010), was a finalist in the young adult fiction category at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2012, he was the inaugural Honoured New Zealand Writer at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.{{cite web |title=2012 Honoured New Zealand Writer: Maurice Gee |url=https://www.writersfestival.co.nz/look-and-listen/videos/Page8/2012-honoured-new-zealand-writer-maurice-gee/ |website=Auckland Writers Festival |access-date=13 September 2021}}

In 2015, Rachel Barrowman's biography of Gee, Maurice Gee: Life and Work, was published by Victoria University Press. The book was critically well-received, and Gee said Barrowman's research was "thorough, unrelenting, illuminating — illuminating even for me". Although Gee said in 2012 that he did not expect to write another novel,{{cite web |last1=Stephens |first1=Joy |title=Esteemed writer calls Nelson home |url=http://www.theprow.org.nz/arts/maurice-gee/#.YT7_dJ0zaUk |website=The Prow |access-date=13 September 2021}} The Severed Land was published in 2017 and received the top award for young adult fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in that same year.

In 2018, Gee published his memoir Memory Pieces.{{cite book |last1=Gee |first1=Maurice |title=Memory Pieces |date=October 2018 |publisher=Victoria University Press |location=Wellington |isbn=978-1-7765-6207-7}} The memoir is in three parts: the first about his parents' lives, the second about his own childhood and adolescent years, and the third about his wife. He said it was "almost certainly" going to be his last book.{{cite news |last1=Gooch |first1=Carly |title=Maurice Gee puts personal touch on final piece |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/107764947/maurice-gee-puts-personal-touch-on-final-piece |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=Nelson Mail |date=15 October 2018}} It was shortlisted for the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-Fiction at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.{{cite web |title=Ockham Shortlist 2019: Memory Pieces by Maurice Gee |url=https://www.anzliterature.com/extract/ockhams-shortlist-2019-memory-pieces-by-maurice-gee/ |website=Academy of New Zealand Literature |access-date=21 November 2020}}

Style and themes

Gee's novels are commonly set in New Zealand, often in fictitious versions of Henderson, where he grew up. His adult novels tend to be realistic portrayals of New Zealand life, often featuring dysfunctional families and relationships, while his children's and young adult novels tend to be fantasies or science fiction. Even in his children's novels, his writing often features bleak or tragic moments.{{cite web |last1=Hale |first1=Elizabeth |title=Exploring Maurice Gee's fiction for young readers |url=https://www.read-nz.org/aotearoa-reads-details/exploring-maurice-gees-fiction-for-young-readers |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=13 September 2021}} The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (2006) said that each of Gee's novels "bountifully gives us a rich vision of some region and aspect of New Zealand life, and of human life in general ... Yet there is always an awareness of living at the edge of an abyss: one false move and we shall leave this abundance for nothingness."

Personal life

Gee had a seven-year relationship with Hera Smith, with whom he had a son, Nigel, in September 1959. They separated in the 1960s.{{cite news |last1=Smithies |first1=Grant |title=Maurice Gee, master storyteller |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/2926645/Maurice-Gee-master-storyteller |access-date=21 November 2020 |work=Sunday Star-Times |date=4 October 2009}}{{cite news |last1=Harbourne |first1=Alice |title=Maurice Gee: Life and Work – review |url=https://www.metromag.co.nz/arts/arts-books/maurice-gee-life-and-work-review |access-date=2 December 2020 |work=Metro NZ |date=8 December 2015}}

Gee married his wife Margareta in 1970, having met in 1966 at the Alexander Turnbull Library where she worked.{{cite web |title=Gee, Margareta, 1940– |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22365680 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=2 December 2020}} They had two adult daughters together, Abigail and Emily. Abigail works as an animator,{{cite web |title=Gee, Abigail, 1972– |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22365682 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=2 December 2020}} and Emily is a writer who has published fantasy and historical novels. Gee said in 2018 that meeting Margareta changed his life: "I was 38 when we got together and was drifting and wasting my time and only pretending to be a writer. She brought stability of every kind into my life – and as I point out in Running on the Stairs, two novels and a handful of stories before meeting her, more than 30 novels since."

{{As of|2020}}, he lived in Nelson with his wife and considered himself to be retired from writing.{{cite news |last1=O'Connell |first1=Tim |title=Final chapter complete in author's Riverside chair restoration |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/122220786/final-chapter-complete-in-authors-riverside-chair-restoration |access-date=13 September 2021 |work=Nelson Mail |date=30 July 2020}}

Gee considered himself an evolutionary humanist. He was an Honorary Associate of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists.{{cite web |title=NZARH Honorary Associates |url=http://rationalists.nz/about/associates |website=NZ Association of Rationalists and Humanists |access-date=21 November 2020}}

Gee died in Nelson on 12 June 2025, at the age of 93.{{cite news|last=Matthews|first=Philip|url=https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360724081/writer-maurice-gee-has-died|date=15 June 2025 |work=The Press |title=Writer Maurice Gee has died}} He supported end of life choice.{{cite news|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360724081/writer-maurice-gee-has-died|title=Writer Maurice Gee has died|publisher=Stuff|first=Philip|last=Matthews|date=15 June 2025}}

Awards and honours

1960: Literary grant from the New Zealand Literary Fund
1961: Scholarship in Letters from the New Zealand Literary Fund
1964: Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago
1978: James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Plumb (1978)
1979: 1st Prize for Fiction at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards for Plumb (1978)
1979: Fiction Prize at the New Zealand Book Awards for Plumb (1978)
1983: AIM Children's Book Awards Book of the Year for The Halfmen of O (1982)
1986: Esther Glen Award for Motherstone (1985)
1987: Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University of Wellington
1989: Victoria University of Wellington Writing Fellowship
1992: Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
1993: 1st Prize for Fiction at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards for Going West (1993)
1995: Esther Glen Award for The Fat Man (1995)
1995: AIM Children's Book Awards Book of the Year for The Fat Man (1995)
1998: Deutz Medal for fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for Live Bodies (1998)
2002: Margaret Mahy Award for significant contributions to children's literature
2003: Named an Arts Foundation Icon in 2003
2004: Gaelyn Gordon Award for Under the Mountain
2004: $60,000 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for fiction
2004: Honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of Auckland
2006: Deutz Medal for Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for Blindsight (2005)
2008: New Zealand Post Young Adult Fiction Award for Salt (2007)
2017: New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Copyright Licensing NZ Award for Young Adult Fiction for The Severed Land (2017)

Adaptations

; Feature films

Fracture (2004) based on Crime Story{{cite web |title=Fracture |url= http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/fracture-2004 |publisher=NZ On Screen |access-date=19 June 2025 |archive-date=17 July 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140717084932/http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/fracture-2004|url-status=live}}
In My Father's Den (2004){{cite web |title=In My Father's Den |url= http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/in-my-fathers-den-2004/background#critique_0 |access-date=19 June 2025 |publisher=NZ On Screen}}
Under the Mountain (2009){{cite web |title=Under the Mountain |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/under-the-mountain-2009 |publisher=NZ On Screen |access-date=19 June 2025}}

; Television

Under the Mountain (1981) eight-part miniseries{{cite web |title=Under the Mountain |url= https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/under-the-mountain-1981-series/series/background/maurice-gee |publisher=NZ On Screen |access-date=19 June 2025}}

; Theatre

Under the Mountain theatrical play by Auckland Theatre Company. Playwright Pip Hall, directed by Sara Brodie (2018){{cite web |title=Under the Mountain |url=https://www.atc.co.nz/whats-on/past-seasons/past-2018-season/under-the-mountain |publisher=Auckland Theatre Company |access-date=19 June 2025}}

Bibliography

=Novels and non-fiction=

The Big Season. London: Hutchinson, 1962. London: Arrow, 1964. Wellington: Allen & Unwin, 1985. {{cite web |title=Maurice Gee |url=http://www.nzlf.auckland.ac.nz/author/?a_id=52 |website=New Zealand Literature File |publisher=University of Auckland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330190529/http://www.nzlf.auckland.ac.nz/author/?a_id=52 |archive-date=30 March 2014}}
A Special Flower. London: Hutchinson, 1965.
In My Father's Den. London: Faber, 1972. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1978. {{ISBN|0571098509}}
A Glorious Morning, Comrade. Auckland: Auckland UP and Oxford UP, 1975.
Games of Choice. London: Faber, 1976. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1978.
Plumb. London: Faber, 1978. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1979 (Part 1 of the Plumb trilogy).
Under the Mountain. Wellington: Oxford UP, 1979.
The World Around the Corner. Wellington: Oxford UP, 1980.
Meg. London: Faber, 1981. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982. Auckland: Penguin (Part 2 of the Plumb trilogy).
The Halfmen of O. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1982. Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1986.
Sole Survivor. London: Faber, 1983. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. Auckland: Penguin, 1983 (Part 3 of the Plumb trilogy).
The Priests of Ferris. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1984.
Motherstone. Auckland: Oxford UP, 1985.
The Fire-Raiser. Auckland: Puffin, 1986.
Collected Stories. Auckland: Penguin, 1986. New York: Penguin, 1987.
Prowlers. London and Boston: Faber, 1987.
The Champion. Auckland: Puffin, 1989; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
The Burning Boy. London: Faber, 1990, 1992; Auckland: Viking, 1990.
Going West. Auckland: Viking, 1992; London: Faber, 1992; Auckland: Penguin, 2000.
Crime Story.Auckland: Penguin Books, 1994; Auckland: Viking, 1994; London: Faber, 1995.
The Fat Man. Auckland: Viking, 1994; Auckland: Puffin, 2000; Auckland: Puffin, 2008.
Plumb Trilogy. Auckland: Penguin, 1995 (Plumb, Meg, & Sole Survivor).
Loving Ways. Auckland: Penguin, 1996.
Live Bodies. Auckland: Penguin, 1998; London: Faber, 1998; Scheuring: Black Ink, 2002 (German edition).
Orchard Street. Auckland: Viking, 1998.
Hostel Girl. Auckland: Puffin, 1999.
Ellie and the Shadow Man. Auckland: Penguin, 2001.
The Scornful Moon. Auckland: Penguin, 2003.
Blindsight. Auckland: Penguin, 2005.
Salt. Auckland: Puffin, 2007.
Gool. Auckland: Puffin, 2008.
Access Road. Auckland: Penguin, 2009.
The Limping Man. Auckland: Puffin, 2010.
The Severed Land. Auckland: Penguin Random House, 2017.
Memory Pieces. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2018.

=Short stories: first publication=

"In at the Death", Kiwi (1955): 21–26.
"The Widow", Landfall 9 (1955): 196–213. In GMC, CS.
"Evening at Home", Arena 45 (1956): 23–24.
"The Quarry", Arena 46 (1957): 6–10, 13.
"A Sleeping Face", Landfall 11 (1957): 194–221. In GMC, CS.
"A Girl in Blue", Mate 2 (1958): 10–19.
"While the Flag was Up", Arena 50 (1958–59): 13–17, 28.
"The Losers", Landfall 13 (1959): 120–47. In Landfall Country: Work from Landfall, 1947–1961. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1962, 24–56. In New Zealand Short Stories, Second Series. Ed. C. K. Stead. London: Oxford UP, 1966, 255–95. In GMC, CS.
"Facade", Mate 4 (1960): 26–33.
"Schooldays", Mate December 1960: 2–11. In GMC, CS.
"The Champion", Landfall 20 (1966): 113–25. In GMC, CS.
"Down in the World", Landfall 21 (1967): 296–302. In GMC, CS.
"A Retired Life", Landfall 23 (1969): 101–16. In GMC, CS.

Notes

External links

{{IMDb name| 1088298}}
More information about Maurice Gee's life and works is available at [https://www.read-nz.org/writer/gee-maurice/ Read NZ Te Pou Muramura]
Academic essay with citations: [https://web.archive.org/web/20071006114747/http://dadashopping.net/work.php?code=dickensian_grotesque Dickensian grotesque in Maurice Gee's "The Fat Man"]
[https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.41996 Maurice Gee Collection] at the Alexander Turnbull Library

Category:1931 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients

Category:New Zealand humanists

Category:New Zealand male novelists

Category:New Zealand crime fiction writers

Category:New Zealand children's writers

Category:People from Whakatāne

Category:University of Auckland alumni

Category:20th-century New Zealand novelists

Category:21st-century New Zealand novelists

Category:People educated at Avondale College